Fr3quency
by ArchangelUK
Summary: When all around you is chaos, the bliss of silence can only be surpassed by the peace and understanding of another who feels the same. (Shinji Rei)
1. Fr1quency: Amplitude

**Fr3quency****  
By ArchangelUK**

_I don't own Neon Genesis Evangelion. However, I do own a vast army of Ayanami clones which I will send against the evil galactic trade empire, then maybe I'll try and take over the world with them. Fly my pretties! FLY!  
_

**Fr1quency: Amplitude**

Time seemed to drag; it was one of the founding laws of the universe that everything apparently seemed to have an opposite. North had south, the sun had the moon, fire and ice. Add to that angels and demons or perhaps angels and 'The Angels' and you had pretty damning evidence to the fact. Okay, so perhaps gravity was the odd one out but at this precise time Shinji Ikari fervently wished some kind of Anti-Gravity ray from the next messenger of God would blissfully shoot him off into space.

Space: where no one can hear you scream, or Asuka scream (at him) more importantly.

_So_, Shinji thought, _if everything has it's opposite so must the fundamental laws of living. That would explain why time was running so slowly, if time flies when you are having fun then the reverse is also true - it must drag when you're not having fun. _

Shinji Ikari was not having fun, far from it.

Misato Katsuragi held the beer can just in front of her luscious red lips and cast a trained eye over Shinji's tenseness. The Third Child in turn cast a weary and wary gaze up at his Guardian.

"You still don't like situations like this do you? When there are a lot of people?"

A lot of people was a somewhat ambivalent statement, Shinji decided. The room presently was hosting a party for the newly promoted Major Misato Katsuragi (JPS, TUW). The letters at the end represented the two conduct medals she had been awarded by Japan and the Tokyo-3 'Government' respectively. The Japan Peoples Star and the Tokyo Unsung Warrior to give their proper titles were awarded to those non-military individuals exhibiting courage in defending their country and city from adversaries. NERV could never be classified as strictly military and had a great number of personnel who had the TUW. All three pilots had been awarded the TUW previously yet all had refused the honour, even Asuka for reasons she refused to divulge. Of course if you were to ask Misato she'd say the letters JPS stood for after her name she'd say "Just Perfect and Sexy".

It should be noted that if you had asked Asuka what the letters TUW meant after Misato's name she would have said something like "Total Utter Wh-"

"Oh yeah!? What gives you the right to say that to me?"

"Because you're an IDIOT!"

"You can't say that to me!"

"I just did… IDIOT!"

"She-Devil!"

"I'll give you she-devil! There'll be a trident sticking out your backside when I'm through with you!"

"There they go again." Shinji muttered, as his friends began another internal fight between boys and girls. "It's not the numbers, I don't really mind that."

"Then what is it?"

"Why do they have to be so… noisy?"

A full scale war had broken out between the Aida-Suzahara coalition and the dreaded Langley-Sohryu-Horaki Axis forces. Over what exactly the latest bust up had occurred neither Shinji or Misato knew but as per usual the main protagonists were Asuka and Touji. It had to have been something incredibly offensive on Asuka's part this time though as Kensuke was on his feet screaming obscenities back at the red head. Unusual as the boy was the grounded and passive one who usually went for the acid tipped one-line verbal barbs that were his specialty. Kensuke Aida though was livid.

Hikari wasn't as angry; to see the Class Rep in full fury-mode was something akin to an Evangelion going berserk. Touji had only seen it happen once and he didn't want to see it EVER again. Hikari was backing up Asuka to the hilt though and PenPen seemed to be acting as the Horaki girl's knight in shining armour. Warking threateningly and looking to pounce on anyone who dared to threaten his beloved lady of the pigtails and keeper of the cutest smile the penguin had ever seen.

Shinji closed his eyes and tried to blot it all out but failed miserably, slowly and inexplicably his fingers began to tighten around his soda can.

"Your promotion," He glanced back to Misato, "Everyone seems happy for you but you don't seem very happy at all."

"More flexibility, more responsibility, a few more yen in the bank, these are all good things Shinji-kun."

Shinji decided not to point out the longer hours, more stress and strain that would also come with the promotion. "Hmm, so why did you join NERV anyway."

She shrugged, "I dunno. It's been a long time since I've joined, you know." Misato swilled the beer around in its can and Shinji resigned himself to the fact that he'd remain in the dark about it like oh so much else.

The noise grew louder as the argument grew even more heated, Shinji's ears began to hurt and he desperately tried to think of something, anything else to take his mind off the rumpus. A vein on his neck began to grow more prominently, his right hand clenching into a fist over and over involuntarily as the sounds of hostility assaulted his ears. All he wanted was peace and quiet intermixed with some normal conversation, was that too much to ask? Why did they have to be all so blasted immature? Slowly Shinji could feel the rage swelling up within him, instantly he closed his eyes and tried to shut it off to quell the flames flickering within him. He was succeeding at least until he realised Misato had said something to him and despite her being next to him he actually had been unable to hear her.

Misato saw the danger all too late, as Shinji's eyes hammered open his right eyebrow began to twitch violently and as Asuka and Touji let loose further verbal broadsides the young pilot's hand clenched so tightly she was sure he was breaking his own fingers. Slamming his fist and palm down on the table and pushing himself up like a rocket Shinji screamed at the top of his lungs,

"FOR GOD'S SAKE WILL YOU ALL SHUT UUUUUP!"

Silence and so time stood still for one almost inconceivable moment as though in shock itself, Shinji Ikari stood eyes ablaze with such anger, frustration and fury his own father would have winced at the severity. Of course that meant nothing to some people, especially if their name was Asuka.

"Jeez Baka, what crawled up your ass and d-"

"-I said **_QUIET_**!"

Asuka's mouth closed rather quickly, her teeth clicked against each other with the speed. The full focus of Shinji's anger had fallen on her for those few seconds and although Asuka would never admit to being scared of anything to anyone except maybe Hikari who knew of her fear of losing her piloting position she was scared. In fact she would go as far as saying the look Shinji was giving her terrified her and chilled her down to the marrow of her bones.

Everyone stared at Shinji wide-eyed, the look on his face was more furious they could ever remember. PenPen had hidden under the table between Asuka and Hikari thinking that was probably the safest place to be as surely the Third Child would never be able to out yell the Second or for one moment turn on the kind hearted class representative. However with Asuka put firmly in place he was beginning to doubt anywhere was safe in his apartment at the moment from Shinji's wrath.

_Ding Dong_

The doorbell rang but nobody dared move all still cowering in the face of the young Ikari. The doorbell rang once more, twice in fact with added urgency and Shinji with an almost animalistic snarl got up and marched to the door, snatching his coat on the way.

"Shin-chan?" Misato squeaked out after him but there was only the whir of electronics as the door opened and closed again. The small group then heard footsteps heading back towards them and for a moment thought Shinji hadn't left after all. The air grew thick with anticipation and just a little tension but the Third Child did not return, instead through the door came the confused figures of Ryoji Kaji and Doctor Ritsuko Akagi.

"Um, do you mind telling us what the hell is going on?"

"Damn them!" Shinji growled as he marched away from the apartment, where to exactly he didn't care.

_Why can't they just all get along? Is it completely impossible for Asuka to be quiet and polite, Touji not to insult everyone, Kensuke not to leer constantly and be continually sarcastic? For Misato to give a straight answer or Hikari not to boss everyone around?_

He kicked an empty soda can on the path with great satisfaction and it skidded along the concrete only to bounce of a lamppost, which greatly protested at this treatment. The can bounced into the grass displacing the early evening dew in a great shower of water droplets. Shinji kept walking.

Twenty minutes later or so he began to hear the sounds of construction. More noise, more unnecessary noise, the sounds of industry and of machines. Grinding machines, crushing machines, pummelling machines, machines of steel and iron pounding the land to fit their masters desires and also pounding the inside of his head. Shinji flung his hands up towards his ears to cover them from the growing cacophony when all of a sudden his watch beeped signalling the half hour – and the noise abruptly stopped.

Silence, soothing silence washed over his aching brain and bathed his scarred psyche in blissful solitude. Not even the escape of his SDAT could feel anywhere near as comforting as this.

He sighed, except it wasn't just him sighing but someone else as well. Alert and wary he scanned his surroundings, there didn't seem to be anyone there. The sky was full of clouds blocking out the natural light and the phosphorescence provided by the man made lights had long since flickered into obscurity in this particular part of town. Shinji was well aware it wasn't uncommon for people to 'vanish' in dark places such as this yet he wasn't afraid for some reason, merely cautious. He did wish though he knew where it was he had ended up, he knew most of Tokyo-3 now but that was in daylight.

In response to his unspoken prayer the sky momentarily became clearer, moon and starlight illuminating the area above him. Looking upwards he was able to discern apartment blocks and as his eyes adjusted he saw a figure on a balcony looking back at him.

"Ayanami?"

* * *

_**To Be Continued...**_

**_ArchangelUK 0:o)_**


	2. Fr2qeuncy: Static

**Fr3quency****  
By ArchangelUK**

_**Apologies for the delay, what is it? A year? Meh. Anyway I've been most impressed by the continual badgering over that period as to when this chapter would appear. Well here it is! Hope it meets everyone's satisfaction. In this chapter Hikari loses it big time (so OC criticisms accepted) but it was about time someone did with Asuka. Speaking of, now don't you S/Rers worry but there is some S/A in this... well that only leaves me to say:**_

_I don't own Neon Genesis Evangelion. However, I do own this very impressive collection of Evangelion Dance Lesson books, 'learn to annihilate you enemies with the Charleston or vanquish your foes with a quick foxtrot. Yes, you too could be dancing your enemies down a foxtrot to oblivion' only $99.99.99! (And I don't own Reboot either)  
_

**Fr2qeuncy: Static**

Shinji Ikari looked upwards at his blue haired coworker and she in turn down on him, his eyes are full of wonderment whilst hers were full of confusion.

"Ayanami." Shinji repeated, almost to himself.

" Pilot Ikari, what are you doing here?"

"I'm not entirely sure," he admitted, " I just seem to have ended up here outside your apartment."

Shinji paused for a moment, it was quite impressive when he thought about it. Ayanami was at least four floors up while he was on ground level and yet he could hear her as easily as if she was standing right next to him. It really put into perspective how quiet it was, bearing in mind the distance and Ayanami's usual quiet voice the silence seemed almost unnatural in its existence - perhaps such silence wasn't what Shinji was looking for either.

"Why?"

"Um…" Shinji stammered, taken aback as usual by Ayanami's abrupt, short and to the point questioning. Taking this as Shinji not understanding her question Rei asked again.

"That explains to me how you came to be here, however that does not tell me why."

Rei looked suspicious; Shinji was getting to feel quite uncomfortable under her gaze. In the back of his mind he was wondering when she had ever said so much to him in one go; Rei in some ways frightened Shinji, not in the same way Asuka did sometimes. There was something about Rei that Shinji could sense was very dangerous indeed, not that he ever intended to betray the girl whom he considered a highly valued friend even if she did not feel anything like that towards him other than co-worker. He swallowed, trying to bring some saliva to his rapidly drying mouth

"I think I just needed some air, it was kind of stuffy in the apartment you know?" Shinji reached behind his back and laughed nervously, Rei shifted her gaze back upwards. After a few minutes Shinji began making his way up the flights of stairs and roughly a further five minutes later found himself next to Rei on the balcony.

"Misato was having a party to celebrate her promotion."

Rei closed her eyes briefly, "I'm aware of that."

"Why didn't you come?" Shinji realised he sounded a bit annoyed and in truth he was slightly, Rei's presence at the party would have been a boon for him. "You were invited weren't you?"

"Yes." Rei stretched her arms out behind her slightly, flexing her shoulders. "However, Pilot Sohryu can be…"

"Irritating?" Shinji muttered.

The First Child look somewhat surprised by Shinji's comment, a ghost of a smile appeared on her face. "I would have said somewhat loud."

Shinji chuckled despite himself, "Yes, I can empathise with that."

"You still have not answered my question as to why."

Shinji frowned, "No, I don't suppose I have really."

"Then please would you?"

"Peace… Ayanami." Shinji sighed and leaned heavily on the rail. "Peace and quiet."

Asuka's futon was much better than hers, Hikari had decided. The filling was softer, the length ideal, the height just right for her and it molded itself to a new owner without any qualms. Hikari had been laying on said futon for about twenty minutes, (a glance at her watch confirmed this to be true) and for those twenty minutes she'd been diligently listening to Asuka bad mouth the following. 

Shinji.  
The weather.  
Japanese furniture.  
Shinji.  
Touji.  
Shinji.  
Ayanami.  
Shinji.  
Misato.  
Shinji again.  
And then Kensuke.

Now Asuka was coming back around to Shinji again… Hikari rolled her eyes.

"I mean what is that idiot Shinji's problem, yelling at us all like that? What is he some kind of freak?"

Had Hikari spoken immediately her response would probably have been "No, just an atypical Evangelion pilot." Thankfully she bit her tongue, literally as it happens, preferring instead to sigh and attempt to back their absent friend up. "I think it's just he's very sensitive and doesn't like it when people he considers his friends are fighting. Think about it, we came into his house-"

"_-My_ house." Asuka snapped.

"_Your_ house." Hikari insisted, "And proceeded to make him miserable."

"There's no need for him to act like that though." Asuka scoffed and tossed her hair, "What a loser."

Something inside Hikari snapped and she had to restrain herself from getting up and yelling at the redhead. How could she just dismiss him like that? It was so unfair; Shinji had never done anything against her apart from being in the wrong place at the wrong time and being forced into becoming a pilot. She remembered all too well Touji's all too quiet account of what happened with the fourth angel, what Shinji went through to protect them all. It had been several days before she had seen him anywhere near as boisterous and fun loving as he normally was. She pursed her lips together; sometimes Asuka could be so stubborn it seems it even tried her colossal patience.

Then it happened: she made a decision.

A decision that on the face of it not only seemed foolhardy but to many completely suicidal, but she was determined to go ahead and see it through. It might damage their friendship true, but in the end it might be for the greater good. A decision then, that would make anyone else balk at the prospect – she challenged the viewpoint of Asuka Langley Sohryu.

"You know, for someone who apparently you don't like you sure do talk about Shinji a lot Asuka." A sly grin crept out on Hikari's lips, the younger girl blinked in disbelief.

"Excuse me?"

"Just an observation." Hikari put up her hands in innocence, "But come on though you sure do seem to like saying his name Asuka."

"That's because I'm trying to make you understand what an abject nightmare it is to live with the dork." Asuka gestured erratically with her arms and began stomping up and down the room, though if you'd asked Asuka she would have said she was simply 'pacing'.

Hikari when Asuka had her back to her allowed herself a small smile. _She's taken the bait!_ The class rep thought. _Okay Asuka, let's see how you really feel about Shinji._

Steeling herself for what she was about to do Hikari took a deep breath and stood up before walking over to Asuka's note board. Trying not to look at all the sickeningly obvious photos of Kaji and the persistent (to the point of pornographic on occasions) attentions of the Second Child. Hikari gently pulled off a timetable of household chores.

"A nightmare? Really…"

Asuka spun around, "Yes really! If you want to swap him for those two sisters of yours be my guest."

Hikari laughed, but sympathetically. "Even if I wanted to I couldn't because of NERV and I wouldn't want to anyway."

"Not surprising." Asuka snorted, "The baka's useless."

Hikari looked up from the chore list and raised a sarcastic eyebrow, "If he's so useless why is he down to do most of the household chores?"

Asuka scoffed, "Because he's useless at scissors paper stone that's why."

Hikari didn't have a readily available response to that and so she took a couple of paces away from Asuka then returned to her position. "Hmm, Monday – cooking Shinji, cleaning Shinji, washing up Shinji, rubbish Shinji."

The leader of the anti-Shinji faction blinked, "So?"

Hikari continued, "Tuesday. Cooking Shinji, cleaning Shinji, washing up Shinji, rubbish Shinji, _laundry_ Shinji."

"Hey! I do more around the house than he does."

Hikari went along the planner and after a couple of Misato's and a few dozen more Shinji's came to Friday morning. "Ah, here we go, Friday: Laundry Asuka, rubbish Asuka, cooking Asuka."

"There, there – you see? That laundry's the worst of the lot."

"I can imagine; there's just one thing that confuses me Asuka. Now Fridays I thought you said you had music practice?"

"Yeah, so?"

"So… you don't get home until late." Asuka's brow knotted in a mixture of anger and frustration, Hikari continued regardless. "So how do you do the laundry?"

"I… Um, that is to say I-"

"-let Shinji do it as always?" The Second Child's jaw dropped, the reply as stinging as and as real as though Hikari had slapped her in the face. The younger girl took a pace forward, her anger growing with each passing second. "When are you going to get it into your thick skull that he cares about you and stop treating him as though he's something on your shoe you dip?!"

Asuka was reeling; this was Hikari, this was her loyal friend who could not hurt a fly and was as kind as the day is long. The one person she could unequivocally count on to share and keep her secrets with and here she was not only defending Shinji but practically yelling at her. She had never known Hikari this angry about anything and though she hated to admit it this new Hikari terrified her. This all did not compute in Asuka's confused brain and so, lacking a proper response or course of action it did the most sensible thing. It waived a little white flag and shut down for the rest of the evening.

"You've got the world at your feet, a multi-trillion pound organization at your back ready to do anything for you, the job you claim you've always wanted to do. A steady family dynamic if you would believe it and a friend who goes through torture day after day just trying to make your life better!"

"You don't-"

"NOT ME - _**SHINJI!**_" Hikari roared, "It's about time you got to listen to a few home truths Asuka, you see I know what goes on it those Evangelions, Touji told me and he was pretty specific on the details. Shinji hates piloting and only pilots to protect us _and_ you and what happens? He just gets shot down whenever he tries to be nice to you because your damned ego can't stand for it!"

Out in the living room a lot of this was very audible, paper walls had a habit of being very flimsy you see. Touji munched on a riceball seemingly oblivious on the outside. What he was actually thinking was _- Kami-sama she's flipped!_

"I'm fed up with you treating Shinji like trash; like he's your personal slave any girl would be damned lucky to have a caring, sensitive and loyal guy like him."

"Oh yeah!" Asuka yelled, finally recovering from the shock. "Who'd want the big dork? He wouldn't know how to relate to anyone if you gave him a MANUAL!" Actually that's not entirely true as what Asuka actually said was 'if you gave him a' then a string of three swear words in German (on reflex), English (on secondary reflex) and finally Japanese before coming to the wall shakingly loud 'MANUAL!'.

"Who? WHO?" Hikari's eyebrow twitched, well beyond the point her normal reserve nature could reign in her surprisingly large pent up rage. Internally she was in turmoil, her mouth seemingly was no longer controlled by her brain which was desperately trying to get her to stop. "I'll tell you _who_ would want that dork. EVERYONE!"

Asuka involuntarily took a step back, Hikari involuntarily took a step forward.

"You wonder why Shinji never gets any attention in class from the girls while you get so much from the guys? Even Ayanami gets attention and yet he doesn't don't you think that's odd especially when you're all Eva pilots. You're heroes to this city."

"Because they're perverts like Shinji is."

"Wrong answer Asuka." Hikari spat, "It's because since you came here and the way you acted towards him all the girls have deemed him off limits. That he belonged to you."

"He does belong to me!" Asuka's chin wobbled slightly, her eyes were watery but she would not cry._ I promised I **would not **cry…_

"No. He. Doesn't. All he is to you is some kind of possession, something you can use as you see fit and put down to improve your own opinion of yourself." Hikari began to feel her anger trickle away, giving way to a new emotion entirely. "Do you even care about him Asuka?" The emotion was pity.

"Of course I don't!"

"Do you?"

"I… I…"

"It's a simple question Asuka – do you care about Shinji?"

Her face a picture of turmoil Asuka shook her head only to then nod before shaking her head once more vigorously. Hikari sighed sympathetically and grabbed Asuka's wrist with her right hand, gently, at first Asuka shook her away but Hikari just reapplied the grip. It was soft yet she could not muster the strength to break it again, the redhead collapsed onto her knees. Hikari followed her.

"I…" Asuka tried again, with the same level of success.

"You do don't you."

"No I don't!" Asuka cried, her voice cracking. Hikari just gave a small sad smile and the final bastion of emotional defense so carefully honed and crafted over seven years by Asuka was breeched. Her sanctum, her citadel, rendered obsolete by a smile of disappointment.

"Yes." She whispered, as Asuka involuntarily collapsed onto her shoulder, her body quaking with loud sobs. "Yes you do Asuka, and what's worse you may have already lost him. The girls are queuing up to take him off of you and I don't exaggerate, you're going to have to do something pretty quick and change your attitude towards him otherwise-" She broke off for a moment and looked up towards a picture on Asuka dresser, it was a photo of Major Katsuragi, herself, Suzahara and Aida with all three Eva pilots at a school evening not long back. As usual Touji was showboating in front of camera, while Asuka favoured the viewer with the dazzling but false smile she always rolled out for such pictures. She found herself though looking at Shinji and Ayanami, Shinji's face wore the same reserved smile as Ayanami. The thing that caught her glance though was Rei's red eyes, though the rest were looking at the camera, Rei was surreptitiously looking at Shinji. She blinked then continued. "Otherwise you're going to lose the best thing that ever happened to you Asuka."

She swallowed, and though it pained her knowing that it was her that caused her suffering with her goal achieved Hikari gently rocked her friend back and forth.

And tried to stop the tears that would not stop falling.

Rei looked somewhat skeptically at Shinji, "Peace and quiet?" She asked, "And you can find peace and quiet in this void?" 

Shinji blinked, "I suppose."

Rei looked out over the city. "I do not treasure silence or emptiness. Emptiness is sorrow, how can you feel fulfillment in nothingness? It is the same nothingness that will be if Third Impact takes place, a void of death and of absolution."

"Then, why am I compelled by what symbolizes lack of life?"

She cast her red eyes over his form, as if searching for something. "Pain, your life is so full of pain you can no longer distinguish that which is physical and that which is mental."

Shinji allowed himself a rueful smile, "I'm running away aren't I?"

Rei nodded, "That is why you run, that is why…" She looked troubled and turned away from him. "That is why I run too."

"You don't run away Rei." Shinji frowned, she bit her lip.

"I too know the comfort of the darkness, of the quiet. I yearn for that peace too Shinji. To return to the void from which I came, to be once again – nothing. But I cannot."

"Because of the responsibility, the responsibility to those who seek life."

Rei was silent for a moment, "It is selfish to run away, it makes easier the goal of our enemies."

"It defeats purpose correct?"

"Our purpose is what makes us individuals, I am I, you are you."

Shinji grinned suddenly, "You called me Shinji."

Rei blushed lightly, "You called me Rei."

"No one's ever explained it like that to me before you know." Shinji said, tapping a finger against his chin and apparently oblivious to Rei's reaction. "It's… nice to know that someone understands Rei. I - didn't think that would be possible for me."

Rei looked up at the sky, "It's getting late."

"And cold." Shinji muttered, wrapping his arms around him.

"I don't feel the cold." Rei stated matter-of-factly.

"No." Shinji smiled, "You're heart is too warm to feel it."

Rei blushed profusely at that and this time Shinji did notice. "So, what now?"

"I'm not sure." Admitted the Third Child, "Perhaps I'll stay here a while longer."

"As you wish." Rei inclined her head and went to move back inside her apartment but stopped just in the doorway. "Shinji?"

"Yes Rei?"

"Remember when I said I didn't have anything else?"

"Of course."

"I was incorrect, I know what else I have now."

"Oh?"

"You Shinji-kun."

And Rei left it at that.

* * *

_**To Be Continued...  
**__**Pleaaaaase review!**_

**_ArchangelUK 0:o)_**


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